Recovering after a Reputation Crisis [Infographic]

Warren Buffett said “If you lose money for the firm I will be understanding. If you lose reputation I will be ruthless”, and expressed similar concepts on the time it takes to build and destroy a reputation. Unlike money loss, reputation is something companies cannot easily recover from in a predictable way. But how does that happen exactly? How do you measure and time the recovery? Sentiment analysis is one of the ways to go.

Nestlé, Domino’s and United Airlines are here 3 case studies in Alterian infographics, which clearly shows the cause of the reputation crisis, what the company did to address it, and how long positive mentions took to start appearing again.

There are 3 key lessons to learn from such cases:

A higher positive sentiment means a stronger negative one after the crisis. Data shows Nestlé “fell” more in the public perception due to its prior status. It’s almost like when we’re disappointed at someone who we respected: the more we did, the more disappointed we will be.

Speed matters. Unlike Nestlé, Domino’s proactively responded to the crisis with an apology video and legal actions against their employees. The fact they recovered faster does not come as a surprise.

What you do matters. Nestlé’s censorship made things worse for the company. Dealing directly with the crisis is always the best course of action.

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Author Sheldon Hogarth

Don't ever expect anyone to say good things about you. Public Relations and Online Reputation depends on how vigorously you make your good works and happy customers known to others.
I can help you focus on leveraging your unique ideas, innovative approaches and stellar results to become new customers and a PR asset. Ask for a free consultation by emailing me at sheldon[at]massive.pr